The Windermere Children - Writing Wednesday

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post, 

There are some films that you watch that really make all your current problems seem so insignificant. The Windermere Children was one of these films. It's a film based on the real life Holocaust survival stories of Jewish refugee children, who were brought to England as part of a rehabilitation scheme, and it's probably one of the best war films I've seen so far. It included different perspectives and different people and in doing so, it brought the trauma that everyone, including the English civilians, experienced during the hard times of war. The film begins with the Jewish refugees arriving in England. Already, you can feel their fear. Being so used to the concentration camps, many of the teenagers were prepared to face another. Little did they know that Windermere was there to help them and make them grow as independent human beings so that they could leave and be successful in life. 

It's pretty extraordinary the methods of therapy that the charity came up with because no one at the time had ever experienced racial, mass, slaughter, quite like the Holocaust before. Yes, the children who arrived at this institution, were particularly challenging to deal with, considering what they'd been through. The youngest children survived the concentration camps by sticking together as tight-knit groups. At the age of 3, they had become completely self-sufficient and were living off any scraps they could find and were even hiding under floor boards. Understandably, when they arrived, they were obviously scared because of their unfamiliar surroundings. The older children saw their friends and family being slaughtered in front of them and many had been liberated from the camps on the brink of their extermination so they too were fearful of what Windermere held for them. However, the children were completely brought out of their shell as a woman decided to set up what was probably one of the first art therapy classes to be made. Although the children painted some quite sinister pieces that reflected what they'd been through, they were able to visually escape their past and paint whatever they wanted to, which was excellent relief for them. Another class that was set up, was a football class for all the teenage boys. This was also an excellent way in which the boys could let go of their terrible past and move on and find their strength again. Everyone at Windermere also learnt English by one of the Rabbis so that they could communicate with people in the area and form new friendships. This was all very rewarding. Whilst many found out that their family did not survive the camps, one boy managed to find his brother, who escaped Nazi Germany before the war. This reunification was also yet another rewarding part of the scheme and just showed how successful it was as a charity at the time. It was difficult because it was all so new but the children became their own success stories, owning their own businesses and earning a lot of money, and that was something to be proud of.

BBC Breakfast

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XOX, Juliette

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